Vernon Ehlers: “I rise to support this bill and urge its passage. I recognize the original purpose of taking these funds and putting…”

“I rise to support this bill and urge its passage. I recognize the original purpose of taking these funds and putting them on the budget was to hide the deficit during the Vietnam war, and for some years it served that purpose. Mr. Chairman, I also recognize that now we do not perform that practice anymore. We do not try to use these funds to hide the deficit. At the same time, the public is angry. They still perceive this money as being diverted to other purposes. They still perceive this as being used to mask the deficit, and we have to get away from that perception or it is going to hurt our efforts to build a transportation infrastructure in this country. I urge that we now do what is right, we do what is fair, that we take the trust funds off budget, that we use them for the purpose they are intended for, that we pass this bill and we restore the trust in the trust fund.”